


Playing House

by Janina



Category: Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: F/M, Jon has a son, Modern AU, crack fic?, fake family, fake marrieds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-25
Updated: 2015-07-26
Packaged: 2018-04-11 02:12:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4417031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Janina/pseuds/Janina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sansa is having a hard time making friends at her new job. Her co-workers seem to all be married with kids. So, in desperation, she tells them about her husband Jon Snow and their son, Balerion. However, she and Jon are not married, and Balerion is not hers. Now Sansa has to ask Jon if she can borrow him and Balerion for a barbeque she and her "family" were invited to...<br/>This is the fulfillment of a prompt on the fridaynightdumpterdiving blog on Tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Part One

Jon Snow knew Sansa Stark well enough to know that when she showed up at his house with homemade mac and cheese and chocolate chip cookies for him and his son, Balerion, she wanted to ask him a favor. This was her way of buttering him up, and dammit to hell if it didn’t work every time, too. 

For one thing, Jon didn’t always have time to cook for him and his son, so when Sansa brought over something for them to eat – and something homemade to boot – it was like manna from the Gods. Secondly, it meant that he and Balerion got to spend time with her. Something that hadn’t happened much since she’d started her new job as an elementary school teacher. 

She’d even brought Balerion a toy – a white stuffed wolf she’d named Ghost. Balerion loved it almost as much as he loved Sansa. Jon watched his best friend and five-year-old son interact and thought not for the first time that Sansa would make a wonderful mother one day. For a long time he’d even though that one day he and Sansa might make a go of it. It made sense to Jon considering he’d always carried a torch for Sansa. It was just that his timing sucked and life got in the way. 

Now he had a son and he would never saddle Sansa with a ready-made family. Sansa was the sort that would want to share all those firsts with the man she’d one day marry. Jon tried not to think too much about Sansa marrying anyone. Not that he’d already done the marriage bit – he hadn’t. His son had been an accident born out of too much liquor and poor judgment. Not that he would take it all back for the world. His son was his world. 

Val, Balerion’s mother and Jon’s ex, had practically shoved Balerion in his arms the second he’d slid out of her and had been gone. She hadn’t wanted to be a mother. She sent a card for Balerion’s birthday and for Christmas, but other than that, they never saw her. She’d moved to the other side of the country in the hopes of getting as far away from them as possible. Jon didn’t pursue her for child support. He made enough money as a developer and frankly, if Val didn’t want any part of them, then Balerion was probably better off for it. She had not been exactly the nurturing and loving type. His son had Sansa and the whole Stark family for that. 

Jon smiled as Balerion hugged Sansa fiercely and told her he loved her before running off with his new stuffed toy. “Thank you, Aunty Sansa,” Jon said. He sat back in his chair at the kitchen table and sipped his beer. “Now what do you want?”

Sansa batted her long lashes at him and her blue eyes went wide with innocence. “Jon Snow, what do you take me for?”

“Out with it.”

“I need to borrow Balerion. And you.”

Jon just stared at her. “What?”

She sighed and sat back. “Okay, so you know how I started my new job.”

“Yes, I am aware. Balerion and I have been missing you.”

She smiled and Jon thought how her smiles always lit up the room. “You’re sweet," she said.

He shrugged. “I speak the truth.”

“Well, I’m kind of having a hard time…”

“With what?”

“Making friends.”

Jon shook his head. “How is that even possible? Sansa, you have charm coming out of your bottom.”

“Again, you’re very sweet, but see, they’re all together at lunch and talk about their families and kids. I don’t have a family. Or kids.”

“All of them? They _all_ have families. I’m not sure statistically speaking that can be right.”

She just looked at him. 

“I’m just saying,” he said defensively. 

“Okay, there are a handful that don’t, like the gym teachers. Because they haven't figured out how perfect they are for each other yet. I don’t think the science teacher has one either, but he’s weird. He might be even more of a pariah than I am.”

Jon finished his beer. “Okay, I’m following…”

“So, one day when they were all talking about stuff they did over the weekend with their families and I was sitting there all alone and sad with my crappy PBJ and small pathetic bag of chips—”

“Sansa, you didn’t.”

“I did. I started telling them about you and Balerion.”

He sighed and ran a hand through his shoulder length curls. “Sansa…”

“And they ate it up! I whipped out my pictures of you guys—”

“You have pictures of me and Balerion with you?”

“Well, yeah. You give me one every year of the two of you when you get them done.”

Jon’s heart expanded. “San…” 

“Don’t get all sappy and make it a thing,” she told him.

Of the two of them, she was definitely the man. 

“So, they cooed over Balerion and the women drooled all over you – I think you’re what they’ll be picturing while they read their well-worn copies of _Fifty Shades of Grey_ and diddle themselves.”

Jon barked out a laugh. “You paint quite the picture.”

“And one of them is having a barbeque this weekend and invited me and you and Balerion…”

“Did you tell them we were married?”

“Yes. I lost my rings trying to unclog the drain and you’re getting me new ones.”

Jon rolled his eyes. “Of course I am.”

“The question is…how is Balerion at acting?”

Jon shook his head and rubbed his forehead. “Sansa, honestly, I can’t believe you told the people you work with that we’re married. No, you know what – I can believe that. But then you dragged my son into it, that’s the part I can’t believe.”

“After I slaved over a hot stove to make you a homemade dinner and then slaved some more to bake cookies—”

He pointed at her. “You did that for the sole purpose of sucking up.”

“Jon Snow, how can you even say that to me?”

“Because I know you, that’s how,” he muttered. 

“But – but – you know how much I love you and Balerion. We do things together all the time, just the three of us.”

It was true. They did. Jon could almost pretend they were a real family when they did. Even as he gave Sansa a hard time about this, he knew he would go along with it. Balerion was a smart kid – too smart sometimes – Jon knew he could tell his son what the deal was and Balerion would go along with it. He loved his Aunty Sansa. He even asked why she couldn’t be his mother on occasion. Not with her around, of course. 

“I’ll do your laundry for a week,” she said. “I’ll make you dinner every night. I’ll wash your car and—”

“Sansa, stop.”

She leaned forward eagerly, hopefully. “Will you do it?”

He sighed. “Yes.”

She clapped her hands together excitedly and jumped up. She came over to him and peppered his face with exuberant, playful kisses. 

Jon longed to grab her face and kiss her for real, but knew it would probably scare her if he did. 

But at the party when they had to pretend to be a happy couple married and in love with their son…

Yep. Jon was going to play the shit out of this.


	2. Part Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So it looks like what was going to be two parts is now actually three...

“I think I know how to explain to Balerion about Saturday,” Sansa said as soon as Jon opened his door to let her in. She brushed right past him and from the looks of the baking pan she was carrying, she came bearing more food. Jon sniffed the air. It smelled like lasagna. 

“Well hello, honey,” he said as he closed the door. “It’s nice to see you, too. My day was great. How was yours?”

She winced. “Sorry.” She went up on her tiptoes and held the pan off to the side as she kissed his cheek. “Hello, Jon.”

“Hello, Sansa.” He nodded to the tin-foil covered pan in her hand. “What did you bring?”

“Lasagna.”

“Fuck yes! I knew it.” He grinned and took it from her. 

“Just put it in the oven for about a half hour on 350.”

“Got it,” Jon said and they headed into the kitchen. “Balerion!” he called out. “Aunty Sansa is here!”

Balerion came running into the kitchen, his head of dark curls bouncing. He skidded to a stop in front of Sansa and looked up at her with smiling gray eyes. “Hi, Aunty Sansa.”

Sansa kneeled down and hugged her nephew. “Hello, B. Daddy said he told you about Saturday and the, uh, play we are putting on for my new friends?”

Balerion nodded. “Yep. He said you were crazy.”

Sansa arched a brow as she looked over at Jon who just grinned at her. “Oh, he did, did he?”

“Aunty Sansa?” 

“Yes?”

“Why would you lie to your friends? I thought lying was bad.”

Sansa sighed and sat down on the floor. Balerion sat down with her, cross-legged, and looked up at her curiously. “It is bad, B. Very bad. You should never lie.”

“Then why did you do it?”

Sansa opened her mouth and then closed it. She had had a whole thing prepared and was going to present it to Balerion as though they were putting on a play for her co-workers. She was going to present it as make-believe, and that he would be an actor for a day. Leave it to Jon who hated lying to tell him the truth of what she’d done. 

“Well, see, sometimes in life…” she began and then shook her head. “It’s not that I…” She sighed defeatedly. “I’m crazy.”

Balerion giggled. 

Jon came over after turning on the oven and sat down next to Sansa on the floor. He loved that she would do things like this, get right down on the floor to talk to Balerion. 

“This does not mean that you should ever lie,” Sansa told Balerion. “Lying is very, very bad.”

Balerion nodded very seriously. “I know that. I just didn’t know you didn’t know that, Aunty Sansa.”

The kid was smart. Too smart. “I have learned that lesson now, Balerion,” she said solemnly. “Can you forgive me?”

He smiled and got up to hug her. “Yes.” He then looked at her with a frown. “Daddy said I might have to call you ‘Mommy’.”

“No, you don’t have to do that,” Sansa told him. “You can just take out the ‘Aunty’ and call me Sansa.” She looked at Jon. “I’ll just be one of those progressive mothers that lets their kids call her by her first name.”

“I can call you Mommy,” Balerion said. “Because I wish you were my Mommy.”

Sansa’s mouth dropped open and then her eyes welled up in tears and she put a hand over her heart. “Oh, honey...” She held out her arms. “Come here.”

Jon watched his two favorite people hug each other with such love and he smiled. 

When they were done hugging, Balerion ran off saying he was in the middle of a game. Sansa looked at Jon. “I’m crazy? Really? I had a whole thing planned. I was going to tell him about acting and plays, and tell him it was like when he played house or pretend with his friends.”

Jon frowned. “Well, that might’ve worked, too. Shit.”

Sansa laughed. 

His eyes sparkled with mischief as he looked at her. “It’s like he’s really ours and we’re discussing the best way to tell him things.”

Sansa’s heart fluttered in her chest. “See? We’re practicing already.”

“Practicing?”

She nodded. “Yes, we need to practice.”

“Exactly what are we practicing?”

“Couple-y things. Like holding hands and just being close to each other. If I were to put my arm around you at the barbeque and you stiffened because you’re not used to that sort of thing from me, then it would look bad. Like we’re faking.”

“We are.”

She ignored him. “Or we’re going through a rough patch in our marriage. We have to exude comfortableness.”

Jon liked the sound of this. He held up a finger. “Hold that thought. I’m just going to stick the lasagna in and then we’ll start, okay?”

Sansa got up and adjusted her clothes. When Jon was done putting the lasagna in, he came over and stood close to her. Very close. 

She looked up at him and took a step back. “Hello, personal space.”

“If we’re going to be a convincing couple then we need to get used to being in each other’s personal space don’t you think?”

“Oh, so we’re starting right now?”

“Yeah, why not? No time like the present.”

She bit her lip and nodded. “Um, okay.”

He held out his hand. “Holding hands?”

Sansa slipped her hand into his and looked at him. “That seems easy enough, right?”

Then Jon yanked her against him. Sansa fell into him and put her hands on his chest. She stiffened and looked up at him with wide-eyes. Jon smiled easily and ran a hand down her back. “Easy, Sansa…relax. If you’re tense it won’t be convincing, remember?”

By degrees she relaxed and allowed him to wrap his arms around her. He smelled good. His body was warm. 

“Why don’t you put your arms around me now?” he asked softly, his voice taking on a husky quality she’d never heard before. She liked it. 

Slowly and carefully she wound her arms around his neck. 

“I won’t bite, Sansa,” he murmured. “We’ve hugged a billion times.”

“I know, but this is…”

“Yeah?”

“Different,” she said quietly. 

Balerion ran into the kitchen then. “Is dinner almost done, Daddy?”

Sansa pushed out of Jon’s arms and ran her now sweaty and trembling hands down her crisp white button-down shirt. “In about twenty minutes,” Sansa told Balerion. “Want to help me set the table?”

“Sure,” Balerion said with a shrug. 

Jon got the plates down from the cupboard above the sink and handed them to Sansa who then gave Balerion one and followed him to the table where he set the plate down in his spot. Sansa placed the other two places on the table and thought how she hadn’t realized until now that she, Jon, and Balerion had their own designated places at the table. She always sat across from Jon who sat closest to the door. Balerion sat to Jon’s right under the window. 

“Give Aunty Sansa her glass,” she heard Jon say. 

Balerion came over with Sansa’s favorite glass that she always used at their house: a clear Mason jar that she’d gave Jon when she’d attempted canning once. She couldn’t even remember what had been in that jar anymore, but she had declared it the best drinking glass ever after whatever was inside was gone. 

Jon brought over the silverware then and she took the forks and set those. Jon set the knives, and Balerion grabbed the half gallon milk carton from the fridge and handed it to his father while Sansa went to get both Jon and Balerion’s glasses from the cupboard. 

Had they always had this system down? 

“Aunty Sansa, don’t forget the ice cubes!”

“I’m on it,” Sansa said and went into the fridge. She felt Jon come up behind her and place his hands on her shoulders. “Need some help?” he asked near her ear. 

“Getting ice?” 

His laugh was low and rumbly and her stomach flip-flopped. With shaky hands she filled Balerion’s glass with ice and then handed it to Jon who took it and brought it to the table. She then filled his glass with ice and brought it to the table with the ice cube tray for her own glass. 

Balerion ran off to play some more and Jon filled their glasses with milk.

Sansa stood there, watching him. 

When Jon was done, he put the milk away and leaned against the counter. “What are you thinking about?”

“Just – I never realized that we had a routine when I came over for dinner.”

“No?”

She looked at him. “No.”

He pushed away from the counter and came over to her. He stood beside her and ran his hand through her auburn locks. “I suppose it’s just second nature now. It’s nice though, right?”

She nodded. “It is.”

“You’re a part of us, Sansa,” Jon said softly. “You’re a part of me.”

She looked up at him in surprise just as the buzzer went off on the oven. Dinner was ready. Sansa shook her head, clearing her muddled head and what Jon meant by that, and went to get Balerion so they could both wash their hands. 

That too, she noted, was routine. 

xxxxxxxx

After dinner Balerion and Sansa helped Jon clear the table and put the dishes in the dishwasher. Sansa wrapped up the lasagna and put it away in Jon’s fridge, making sure he knew that he and Balerion had plenty of leftovers. 

“You could even take some for lunch if you want,” she told him. 

When she closed the fridge, she found him standing there in the middle of the kitchen just smiling at her. Balerion had already run off to play. 

“What?” she asked. 

“Nothing. I just like the way you look after me and Balerion.”

“I haven’t really done anything special,” she told him with a little laugh. 

“That’s not true. You make us dinner, you make sure we’re invited to all the Stark family get-togethers—”

“Well, Robb is shit at remembering that stuff.”

“Exactly. But you’re not.” He stared coming closer to her and Sansa’s back straightened, her senses on high alert. “Growing up, it was always Robb and I,” he said. 

“I remember,” she murmured. 

“And then things changed somewhere along the way.”

“I think it was around high school actually or maybe—” 

“Robb is my oldest friend, Sansa, but you’re my best friend.” Jon stopped right in front of her. “You have been there for me for so long I can’t remember a time when you weren’t.”

“Well, you’ve been there for me, too. Like the Joffrey fiasco? I really dodged a bullet with that idiot. Plus, you change my oil.”

“Because you’re shit at remembering when to do it.”

She laughed. “That’s true.”

He took her hands in his. “We take care of each other.”

“We do,” she said, staring down at their clasped hands. 

“You were there for me when Val told me she was pregnant. And you were there when she left and Balerion was an infant. You’ve been there for us through everything, Sansa.”

She pulled her hands out of his and laughed nervously as she walked away from him. “What exactly are you getting at, Jon?”

“I’m not sure when my feelings for you changed.”

She looked at him sharply. “What?”

“I kind of feel like maybe they were always there. I always thought there would be time to tell you how I felt, but then life got in the way and I felt like I couldn’t, or I shouldn’t—”

“Jon, what are you doing?” she demanded. 

“I love you, Sansa. I have for a very long time.” He came towards her and she backed away from him. When her back hit the fridge, she just stared at him with wide, uncertain eyes. He took her face in his hands. “You want me to pretend on Saturday that I’m in love with you, and I want to warn you that I won’t be pretending.”

And then he kissed her.


	3. Part Three

Saturday had arrived. It was Game Day. Go Time. D-day? Sansa woke up all snuggly wuggly in her bed and stared at the ceiling thinking about how Jon had kissed her and confessed his feelings for her. She hadn’t done much but think about it since he’d done two days prior. 

She swore she could still feel his lips on hers or at least conjure up the memory of it so well that she could still feel how sweetly and yet passionately he’d kissed her. His lips had been soft and yet he’d applied just enough pressure. It had been an amazing kiss and her heart raced just thinking about it. 

_“You want me to pretend on Saturday that I’m in love with you, and I want to warn you that I won’t be pretending.”_

She shivered, though it was far from cold in her bedroom. 

Jon loved her. Jon was in love with her. Jon loved her. She still hadn’t wrapped her head around it. 

When she thought back over their past she thought about how Jon had been Robb’s friend first. Jon had been part of the Stark household since he was a kid. Then, sometime around high school, if she remembered correctly, Jon and Sansa had started to get close while Jon and Robb had drifted apart. They were still friends and all, but as Jon had said – Robb was his oldest friend, but Sansa was his best friend. 

Jon had brought up how she’d been there for him when Val had announced she was pregnant. Sansa remembered she’d really had a hard time when Jon had even started dating her. Sansa had been with someone at the time herself, but it had driven her crazy when Jon had taken up with Val. 

She’d been jealous. 

There, she admitted it. She’d been jealous. And it had felt like a punch to her gut when Val had gotten pregnant. Jon said she’d been there for him, but Sansa distinctly remembered needing some time away from him to process the fact that Jon was going to be a father and someone else was going to be the mother of his son. 

When had she even started to imagine herself in that position? She didn’t know when, but she did remember how depressed she had been over the prospect of that never happening for her. 

By this account, that had to mean she felt something for Jon that went beyond friendship. Yet, somewhere along the way, she had shoved all of that down and away and carried on as if that episode had never happened. 

Now he was making her remember. Now he was calling up old feelings by expressing his own. 

This time, Sansa didn’t have the luxury of a few days to process. She had a barbeque to attend and a part to play. 

xxxxxxx  
Jon was dressed simply – a white t-shirt with buttons at the top that were all undone so his shirt was actually a v-neck, gray jeans, and sneakers. Sansa would have normally not paid any attention to how Jon was dressed, but today, armed with new knowledge and feelings, she couldn’t take her eyes off him. 

“Hello, beautiful,” he greeted her. 

Her heart raced at that and she was quite happy she had taken the time to dress herself that morning. She had chosen an outfit that said ‘I’m-a-Mom-and-yet-I-can-dress-nice.’ She wore jeans that were actually capris and a light black ruffled tank-top. She wore a simple gold bracelet and gold-hooped earrings and black sandals. 

She was about to tell Jon to save those endearments and compliments for later when Balerion came running to the kitchen. “Hi, Mommy Sansa!” he exclaimed. 

Sansa laughed and bent down to hug him. “Hey, kiddo. My, don’t you look handsome.”

“Daddy said I had to look nice.”

“Well, you do.” He wore simple khaki shorts and a black t-shirt with some kind of purple design on it. “We almost match.”

Balerion beamed. “Can I bring some toys?”

“Of course. Though you will have to share probably.”

Balerion considered this. “I’ll bring one.”

He ran off to grab said toy and Sansa felt Jon’s hand glide down her bare arm. “Have you been thinking at all about what I said?”

She swallowed hard. “Yes.”

“And?”

“And I’m still processing.”

He looked disappointed and Sansa’s heart clenched. “Jon, no matter what happens, I don’t want to lose you. You and Balerion are important to me.”

Jon kissed her quickly, and it was enough to steal her breath and her knees. “You won’t lose us. We need you. _I_ need you.”

Anything Sansa could have thought to say was gone when Balerion came back with a toy motorcycle in hand. 

It was time to go, and Sansa was doubly nervous. Not only did she have a role to play in front of her co-workers, but she now had Jon who had made it clear that any “acting” done on his part today would not be acting. What exactly did he have in store for her?

xxxxxxxx

“Here we go,” Sansa muttered as she, Balerion and Jon climbed out of Jon’s truck. She held a grocery bag with the makings for Strawberry Shortcake in her hand. Balerion took her hand and smiled up at her. “Don’t be nervous,” he said. 

“Thanks, B.”

Jon took Balerion’s other hand and the three of them headed to the backyard of the white Ranch in front of them. 

Jeyne Westerling, Math teacher, was the first one to spot Sansa and she rushed over from beside who Sansa assumed was her husband at the grill, and rushed over. “Hello, Sansa! We’re so glad you could all make it.” She stood back and looked at Jon and Balerion. “My, what a lovely family. I’ve heard a lot about you both. Balerion, right?”

Balerion nodded. “Yup. This is my Daddy and my Mommy.”

Jeyne laughed. “Come on, Balerion, let me introduce you to the other kids.” She pointed at the bag in Sansa’s hand. “What did you bring?”

“Strawberry Shortcake.”

“Excellent, if you want to bring it in the house and put it in the fridge – Margaery! Show Sansa inside?”

Margaery Tyrell, social studies teacher, jumped up from beside the man she was talking to, probably her husband, and greeted Sansa and Jon and led them inside. Sansa and Margaery made small talk as Sansa placed her dessert offering in the fridge. Then Margaery showed Sansa and Jon where the bathroom was and then they all headed out. There were people there Sansa didn’t recognize, and only a handful of people she did from school. 

Sansa took Jon’s hand. “Let’s see if there’s some beer?”

A man in pink board shorts and a white tank top with a palm tree on the front came over and held out his hand to Sansa. “I’m Renly, Margaery’s husband. I’ve heard a lot about you. Sansa, right?”

Sansa took his hand and smiled. “Yes. Hi, Renly. This is my, ah, Jon. My husband Jon.”

Jon wrapped one arm around Sansa while extending his hand to Renly. They shook hands and then Renly told them what was in each cooler. Sansa went straight for the beer for her and Jon and then they found a chairs to sit in near everyone else. There had to be about fifteen people in attendance. Jeyne introduced them to everyone, but Sansa knew that outside of the people she worked with, she would not remember anyone else’s names. 

“I’ll be right back,” Jon said as he placed his beer in the chair’s cup holder. “I’m just going to check on B.”

Sansa nodded and smiled up at him. He surprised her then by giving her a peck on the lips before going to check on Balerion. 

xxxxxx

“So, how did you and Jon meet?” Jeyne asked Sansa after they were all settled in and the kids were off playing. 

Jon grabbed Sansa’s hand and kissed the back of it. “I was friends with Sansa’s brother Robb as kids.”

“Oh, how sweet! So you’ve literally known each other your whole lives!”

“Yes,” Jon said. “We started dating in high school. And all through college. Right, sweetling?”

Sansa just looked at him and smiled. She felt like laughing. They didn’t really have to come up with a story. They had one already. “Yup.”

“And you still have the glow of newlyweds,” Margaery said. 

“Some days it just still feels all new,” Sansa said with a smile. 

When the food was ready, Sansa sat with Balerion at the picnic table with him and the other kids while Jon readied his plate. Balerion told her all about the fun games he was playing with his new friends, and when Jon came over with his food and set it down before him, Balerion dug in with the exuberance of a kid that had been running around all afternoon and worked up an appetite.

“What do you want, sweetheart? A hamburger?” Jon asked her. 

Sansa stood. “I can get it.”

“Let me take care of you,” he murmured and kissed her. It was short, sweet, and family friendly, but it still did things to Sansa.

“Hamburger,” she croaked. 

He grinned and was off and Sansa found a spot at the adult table for her and Jon. 

Everything was going great. After the kids ate, they ran off to play again and the adults sat around chatting. Conversations broke off into groups and then Jon and Sansa found themselves in a quiet conversation of their own. 

“Let’s go for a little walk,” he murmured and kissed the back of her hand. He had been holding it most of the afternoon. 

Sansa bit her lip. “To?”

“Let’s go look at the roses in the front of the house that Jeyne’s been boasting about.”

Sansa agreed, though part of her knew that as soon as they were alone, Jon was most likely going to kiss her for real. 

And, she realized, she wanted him to. Badly. 

They both stood and informed Jeyne they were going to check out her roses. As they walked away, hand-in-hand, Jon practically dragged Sansa to the front of the house. When they finally arrived, he took her face in his hands and kissed her and kissed her until Sansa could do nothing but cling to him to keep herself from falling over. 

“I’ve wanted to do that all day,” he breathed. And then he trailed kisses along her jaw and then down her neck. He nuzzled her there and Sansa breathed his name. He lifted his head and looked at her heatedly. “What are you thinking? What do you feel?”

“I—I think I want you,” she said and kissed him. 

He groaned. “Oh, sweetheart, I have wanted you for so long…” And he kissed her again. 

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?” she asked softly. 

He replied in between soft kisses to her face. “Because I was afraid to.” He looked at her steadily then. “I was afraid to ask you to be with a ready-made family. I didn’t want to hold you back. You’ve talked over the years about starting a family one day and I couldn’t give you all the firsts the way a man untethered by a kid could.”

“But… but Jon, it’s you and Balerion. Not some schmoe off the street with a kid. I’ve been with you and him since he was born. Didn’t I show you how to change his diaper the first time?”

Jon smiled. “You did.”

“I was there when he ate solid food for the first time.”

“And the first time he crawled.”

“And the first time he walked.”

“We are already a family,” Jon said softly. He looked at her in earnest. “I love you, Sansa, so much. Please tell me you love me, too. Or tell me that you could grow to. I have wasted so much time trying to be noble, when really I was just being stupid. Tell me I have a chance.”

The sound of Balerion’s crying rent the air and both Sansa and Jon snapped into action and went in search of him. They rounded the house and found him walking with Jeyne right towards them. Sansa got to him first and went down on her knees. “What happened, B?”

“I fell down,” he said through tears. “I hurt my knees.”

Sansa looked down. He had scraped his knees and had thin ribbons of blood on them. She got up. “Come on, let’s go get cleaned up.”

“There is a first aid kit under the sink in the bathroom,” Jeyne told her. “If you need anything just let me know.”

Jon took his son’s hand and they all three marched into the house and then into the bathroom together. Sansa had Balerion sit on the closed toilet seat while Jon got out the first aid kit. Sansa cleaned the scrapes on both knees and Jon applied band-aids. By the time they were done, Balerion’s tears had subsided and he was ready to go back out and play. 

He tore out of the bathroom as soon as Jon declared him fit enough to play again. Sansa had just put the first aid kit away when Jon had her back in his arms and was kissing her soundly. His hand slipped under her tank top and slid to her back, pushing her into him further. Sansa wrapped her arms around him and played with curls at the nape of his neck. 

They were utterly lost in each other when the sound of someone clearing their throat made them part. Red-faced, Sansa found Margaery smirking at them both. 

“I am so jealous,” she said. 

“We’ll just be out of your way now,” Jon said and grabbed Sansa’s hand. He pulled her with him out of the bathroom and into the kitchen where he kissed her again before they headed outside. 

It dawned on Sansa as they joined the party again that she had been worried about this day for nothing. First it had been how they would act as a couple together and whether they would be believable, and then she had worried that she wouldn’t be able to act natural while Jon made his intentions and feelings clear to her all day. And now, she realized, she had worried for nothing because kissing Jon, being with Jon – it was what she wanted.

Her heart swelled with love, right there in the middle of the barbeque. She loved Jon. And, like him with her, she knew that she had loved him for so long that she didn’t remember a time when she didn’t. It may have been pushed down for one reason or another, but there wasn’t any reason for it to be now. 

Sansa wanted to tell him. And she wanted to tell him now. “We forgot to bring out the dessert,” she blurted out. 

Jon looked at her and must have seen the look of urgency on her face because he said, “Oh, okay, let me um, help you with that.”

“You need both of you for that?” Jeyne said with a smirk. 

Sansa reddened and dragged Jon inside the house with her. Once there, she turned to him and kissed him. “I love you,” she said hurriedly. “I love you and I want to be with you, too.”

Jon looked at her in wonder first, and then he broke into a joyous smile. “Really? You do? You want to make a go of this?”

She nodded. “Yes. I—I’ve been in love with you for a long time, too,” she said. “I was just too afraid and unsure…if you want me, I’m yours.”

“Oh, God, Sansa, you’re all I’ve ever wanted,” he moaned and kissed her. 

“Yep, I’m so jealous.”

Another interruption. Sansa and Jon looked over at Margaery who had emerged from the bathroom. She pointed at Sansa. “So, Jon isn’t really your husband then?” she asked. 

Sansa opened her mouth but no sound came out. 

“And yet it worked out for you,” Margaery said and gestured between Sansa and Jon. “You guys are actually in love even though you’ve clearly been pretending all day to be married?”

“Yes, well—” Sansa began. 

“Don’t worry about it,” Margaery said. “I get it. I did the same thing. Renly out there? So not my husband. I’ve been asking him to pretend to be my husband for the past year. Unlike you though, Sansa, I don’t have a shot in hell with him. He’s gayer than the day is long.” She shrugged. “It’s okay though. I love him anyway. We were talking about staging a divorce soon.” She sailed past them and smiled. “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me.”

Once she was gone, Sansa and Jon just looked at each other and burst out laughing.

“I told you statistically speaking not all of them were married and with kids,” he said. 

“Oh, shut up,” she said and then kissed him. 

“Let’s make it an early night, hmm?” Jon murmured against her lips. “Call your Mom; can you bunk over?”

Sansa laughed. “Yeah, I think that can be arranged.”

“And tomorrow night as well? And the night after that? And the night after that?”

She smiled. “You want me that long?”

“Sansa, sweetheart, I want you for forever.” This time, no one interrupted them as they had one long make out session in the kitchen. 

**The End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading this little ditty everyone! :)


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